Gang busted for operating an illegal Aadhar card centre in Noida

The Gautam Budh Nagar police arrested three people in Noida for allegedly producing fake Aadhaar cards using toe impressions instead of fingerprints, police said on Monday.

The suspects allegedly did so for people who needed bank loans but had low Credit Information Bureau of India Limited (CIBIL) scores, police said. The police further added that four others, part of the nexus, were also arrested for using fake Aadhaar cards.

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A person’s credit history is summarized in a three-digit numeric score known as the CIBIL Score.

According to Rambadan Singh, the deputy commissioner of police in Central Noida, officials at Sector 63 police station were tipped off about the gang’s activities by an anonymous person.

“The gang created fake Aadhaar cards, forged PAN cards, and other records to mislead banks and facilitate loan applications. On the basis of local intelligence and electronic surveillance, seven people were arrested on Sunday evening from various places in Noida. Of them, three were involved in making fake Aadhaar cards and four others were their customers,” said Singh.

The police identified the suspects as Deepak Kumar a resident of Sector 22, Noida, Vishal Singh, a resident of Nandgram, Ghaziabad, Atul Gupta, a resident of Khoda, Ghaziabad, Manish Kumar, a resident of Khatauli, Muzaffarnagar, Shivendra Singh, a resident of Sector 22, Noida, Mohit Kumar, a resident of Mandawali, Delhi and Mohammad Chand, a resident of Sector 8, Noida. The suspects were aged between 19 and 28 years old.

“Of the seven arrested, Deepak, Shivendra, and Mohit operated an illegal ‘Jan Seva Kendra’ for creating fake Aadhaar cards. Shivendra and Mohit had previously worked at genuine Aadhaar card centres, giving them knowledge of the process of creating the IDs. The other four suspects - Chand, Manish, Vishal, and Atul - had obtained fake Aadhaar cards and used them to deceive banks in loan applications. They had each paid between ₹15,000 and ₹20,000 for the fake cards,” said Amit Pratap Singh, assistant commissioner of police-1,Central Noida.

The gang had been operating for two to three months, spreading the word of their fake Aadhaar card creation through word of mouth. “The suspects revealed under questioning that they made Aadhaar and PAN cards for people who needed loans but had poor CIBIL scores. They changed their clients’ names and addresses, creating the Aadhaar cards illegally,” DCP Singh said.

As each Aadhaar card requires biometric data such as fingerprints or iris scans, and two Aadhaar cards cannot be issued for the same biometric data, the suspects used the toe impressions of the same person to create two different Aadhaar cards, according to officials. “The suspects manipulated retina scanner readings to generate fake Aadhaar cards, after which they made fake PAN cards for their clients,” said Amit Kumar Maan, station house officer of Sector 63, Police Station.

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The police recovered four fake Aadhaar cards, five original Aadhaar cards, 15 PAN cards, four enrolment slips for Aadhaar cards, silicon thumb impressions, paper, and lamination foil for bulk Aadhaar card production, an eye scanner, and a webcam camera from the suspects.

DCP Singh said that they are still investigating how many fake Aadhaar cards the gang created. The seven suspects have been charged with cheating and forgery under Sections of the Indian Penal Code. “They were produced before the court and sent to judicial custody on Monday,” he added.